The odds are that the scapes are indicating your garlic is maturing. Remember that the early heat we had with temps in the 80s and 90s pushed a lot of plants into a fast, early growth cycle. For example, the few, remaining plums on my plum treee that have somehow survived three hail storms and wind gusts in the 50s are now about the size they usually are in late May. I think the heat pushed them to grow faster.

There are various ways to deal with the scapes. Some people remove them believing the garlic will grow longer and then store better if the scapes are removed. Some people leave them because they want to let the little bubils mature so they can be planted. Some people remove some scapes for cooking and leave others to form the bubils.

I've linked an article by Barbara Damrosch where she discusses using them in cooking.

As for the hail damage to plants, time will tell. I have seen some plants, like tomatoes, peppers and potatoes, for example, bounce back really well from even very severe damage from hail up to the size of golf balls or half dollars (not this year....all my hail this year has been nickle-sized or less, so far). Corn will not bounce back if the plants' growing tips were damaged.

We just had marble sized hail last night and it did a lot of damage to the garden. Today I found more damage than I saw last night, but that's life. I have faith in the plants and their ability to bounce back one more time. I don't know how much energy they'll have left to bounce back if we have hail again any time soon though.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic Scapes in the Kitchen

My experiencing with elephant garlic last year is that when I left them to bloom did not produce any garlic... but got plenty of seeds. but those seed did germinate this year.

Here are two pics of elephant garlic flowers... flower are very huge (6" diameter)...

sorry typo,seeds did "not" germinate...

Like Dawn said they are scapes. The only reason I remove them is if I want to use them to cook with and to eat. I've done a few comparison trial in my garden would remove maybe have the scapes and leave half. I've never noticed any difference in the size of the cloves or garlic heads. Some do and some don't. In my opinion a lot depends on your garden soil, climate and garden practices. I remove some and freeze them and then use them to cook with during the winter. With all the cool weather especially nights we have had it has slowed things but up here again. If it gets down close to freezing tonight and Sat night like they are saying I'm afraid it might cause my onions to send up stalks. They are big enough now a freeze of even a real cool night won't help them. Jay

Thanks for the replies i'll just leave them and see what happens. Gardening seems a never ending experiment. Last fall i saved 4 pepper plants and brought them into the house. Three made it through the winter and are now back out. The serrano was loaded with blooms when the hail stripped it clean. I think all is going to survive except the broccoli it really took a beating.
allen